Great Shelford kitchen caddy guide

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All households across South Cambridgeshire are receiving a new weekly food waste collection service.

Great Shelford residents will receive a small indoor kitchen caddy to collect food waste in.

You’ll receive a larger outdoor caddy for collection which should be placed next to your other bins on collection day. The outdoor caddies are animal-proof with lockable handles. Keep the lids closed and avoid overfilling to help stop the chance of it tipping over.

You’ll receive a starter roll of caddy liners. While these are plastic, they do not affect the processing of the food waste as they are removed in the first stage of treatment.

Plastic liners help prevent mess and smells and they are also a cost-effective option. When you have finished the roll of liners provided, the Council will not provide more.

You can use any liner in your caddy (including 'compostable plastic' ones available in shops), or none if you prefer. If you're using plastic liners, you must be able to see the food waste through the liner so the caddy crew can see that no other waste is inside.

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Home composting is still encouraged, but using the food waste caddy lets you recycle items like meat, fish, bones, cooked food, and dairy, which shouldn’t be composted at home as they attract vermin. 

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This additional service will help boost recycling rates and reduce the amount of food sent to landfill. Food in landfill produces methane, a greenhouse gas, so using this new service is an important step we can all take to limit climate change.

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The weekly collection dates will show on your bin collection calendar.

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What you can put in your food waste caddy

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You can recycle the following with the new food waste collection service:
•    all uneaten food and plate scrapings
•    raw and cooked food (including mouldy food)
•    fruit and vegetables (including peelings)
•    meat and fish (including bones)
•    dairy (cheese, eggs, eggshells, yoghurt)
•    bread, cakes, pastries, rice, pasta
•    tea bags and coffee grounds
•    tissues / kitchen roll.

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Please do not put the following in your caddy:
•    packaging of any kind (including ‘compostable plastic’ plates, cups etc.)
•    liquids such as milk
•    oil or liquid fat
•    anything else that is not food waste.

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Once your weekly food waste service has started, you should stop putting food waste in the green bin. You can use your green bin if you have missed a collection and do not have capacity in your outdoor caddy until the next collection. Windfall fruit counts as garden waste and can stay in the green bin, but be aware that heavy bins can trigger the lorry’s weight sensor and prevent them being emptied.

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Where your food waste will go

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Food waste will be taken to an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Plant. This is a separate facility from where your garden waste will be composted.
At the plant, caddy liners are mechanically removed and used as a fuel to generate energy, and the food is broken down in the treatment process without oxygen present. This creates biogas which is captured to generate electricity. Fertiliser is also produced, which is used in farming.

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Weekly food waste collections explainer

Posted May 12 2026